Here are some of the more significant news highlights in Dayton in 2021.
New leadership
2021 started off with bang in Dayton politics.
After serving two terms, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley in January announced she would not seek reelection and later joined the governor’s race.
Whaley was first elected to the city commission in 2005 and she won the mayor’s seat in 2013. Four years later, she was reelected after running unopposed.
Whaley has been a powerful voice on the commission and was the driving force behind many city legislative measures, initiatives and programs.
Whaley will be replaced by Jeffrey Mims Jr., a two-term Dayton city commissioner who easily cruised to victory in November’s election, defeating political newcomer Rennes Bowers.
Mims is a retired educator who served on the state and Dayton Public Schools boards, as well as the president of the district’s teachers’ union.
Voters last fall also elected a new commissioner: Shenise Turner-Sloss, a community activist and a federal logistics management specialist.
New police chief, police reform
Richard Biehl, Dayton’s police chief of 13 years, retired in July, which led to a national search for his replacement.
Interim Chief Matt Carper, a 29-year veteran of the force, was a finalist for the job, but he was beat out by Kamran Afzal, an outside candidate who most recently served as the police chief of Hopewell, Virginia.
Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said she picked Afzal because of the leadership skills he has demonstrated during his nearly 30-year career.
She said those skills will invaluable during this difficult period for law enforcement and police-community relations.
Afzal takes over a police department of more than 360 sworn officers that is going through some changes due to police reform efforts.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Some community members who were involved in the police reform process say they were surprised and relieved that Afzal was hired because he is the right fit for the job, especially in this challenging climate.
Police reform
Dayton’s police reform committees disbanded earlier this year after producing 142 recommendations for reforms to policies, practices and policing.
The recommendations are now in various stages of consideration and implementation.
Some reforms create new processes, procedures and positions, like a new independent accountability auditor who among other responsibilities will monitor and audit investigative records to look for patterns of misconduct.
Other proposals seek to improve police training, oversight, accountability and the process to file citizens’ complaints.
One of the more notable recommendations calls for a new 911 mediation responder program that sends non-law enforcement personnel to certain kinds of calls for service, such as complaints about neighbors, noise, animals, panhandling and loitering.
The city is creating six long-term committees focused on use of force, community engagement, training, policy, recruitment and community appeals of complaints against police.
Some community members have said that police reforms are sorely needed, especially given officers’ actions in separate incidents in which they yanked a paraplegic man from his vehicle during a traffic stop and detained, handcuffed and transported a man to the hospital who is mute, deaf and has cerebral palsy.
Dayton receives $138M
Dayton has been awarded nearly $138 million in federal rescue funds that officials say is the largest grant in the city’s history.
City Manager Dickstein and other city officials and elected leaders say this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in neighborhoods, address disparities and improve residents’ quality of life.
The city plans to spend about two-thirds of its funds on improving neighborhoods and replacing lost income tax revenue from a pandemic-related shift to remote work.
Officials say some of the city’s top spending priorities include demolishing hundreds of blighted properties, building new spray parks and investing in housing, amenities and Black and brown businesses.
The city also plans to improve more than two dozen parks, reconstruct sidewalks and curbs, construct a new joint police and fire station and create a new first-floor fund to provide loans in the city’s business districts.
Back from the dead
After sitting empty and collecting cobwebs for three decades, the Dayton Arcade reopened earlier this year to much acclaim.
Nicknamed “downtown’s sleeping giant,” the arcade has re-awakened in a big way, and all of its apartments and private offices are full and have waiting lists.
Credit: Tom Gilliam
Credit: Tom Gilliam
The rehab, called the most complicated project in Dayton’s history, has come fruition thanks to partners and groups that bought into the vision for the complex, including the anchor tenants, the University of Dayton and the Entrepreneurs’ Center.
Because of the arcade rehab and other projects, greater downtown Dayton saw more than $140 million in new investment in 2021, despite economic hardships caused by the pandemic.
COVID
COVID-19 was the big story of 2021 around the world, and Dayton was no exception.
The city at times struggled with staffing and services because of pandemic-related labor shortages and supply-chain disruptions, officials said.
Dayton in May rescinded a mask mandate it had imposed last year, after the CDC relaxed its guidelines as vaccines were rolled out and many people got the shots.
But the city reinstated the mask requirement in mid-September, as cases started climbing again.
The city repealed that mandate in early November.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Dayton’s management and the city’s four unions also clashed this year over the city’s requirement that employees either get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID testing.
The unions claimed the requirement was an unlawful change to their members’ work conditions and terms of employment, which they said must go through the bargaining process.
City Manager Dickstein and other city officials said the testing requirement is a workplace safety measure that does not need union approval.
The unions filed unfair labor practice complaints with the State Employment Relations Board, but a few have been dismissed. The city reached a settlement with the fire union, which withdrew its complaint.
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